"The Black Pearl!" she broke out presently. "My name's an
awful good advertisement. It gives me a reputation for being worse than
I am." She laughed cynically. "But he believed it." Her whole face
darkened again.
"He needn't go away believing it, Pearl." Once more Flick spoke softly,
persuasively, and once more her father looked at her hopefully.
She looked quickly from one to the other as if about to accede, and
then, dropping her head on her arms crossed on her knees, she fell into
wild and tempestuous weeping. "No," she cried, "no, promise me you
won't, Bob. Oh, Oh, Oh!" she wailed and rocked back and forth. "What
shall I do? What shall I do?"
At last she lifted her heavy eyes and looked at the two men. "I want to
go away from here, quick," she said, "quick."
"With Sweeney," said her father, well pleased.
"No." She threw out her hands as if putting the thought from her with
abhorrence. "No, I can't dance and I won't. I never want to dance again.
I never will dance again," passionately.
"But that is a feeling which will soon pass away, my daughter," urged
her father.
"No, no," she wailed. "And anyway, I would never be safe from Ru--from
him, that way. He would follow me about and try to meet me. He would. I
know he would."
Gallito drew back and looked at her with uplifted head. "Afraid! You?"
he asked in surprise.
"No," she flashed at him scornfully, lifting her head, but again she
dropped it brokenly on her arms. "I'm afraid of myself," she cried,
suffering causing her to break down those barriers of self-repression
which she usually erected between herself and everyone about her.
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